Christie exchange caught on tape

There has been another heated exchange between Gov. Christie and someone in the audience. This time it wasn’t what the governor described as a thin-skinned reporter but a teacher who complained about what she is paid and that she wasn’t compensated for her education or her experience. He told her she didn’t have to do that kind of work. This may enforce the image some people have of the governor, but his image started to lose its sheen today. One of Christie’s biggest supporters, Jim Gearhart of 101.5 FM, says Christie caved in to NJEA demands to get the teachers union to go along with a “Race to the Top” federal grant application. Gearhart linked Christie to other governors who came in talking reform then became a part of the problem and said supporting Christie and then having the governor pull the rug out from under supporters is embarrassing.To find out what teachers make go to Gannett New Jersey’s DataUniverse at www.datauniverse.com and click on public school teachers. Here’s the clip of the exchange from NJN TV.

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About Bob Ingle

Bob Ingle is Senior Political Columnist for Gannett New Jersey newspapers and co-author of The New York Times' Best Seller, "The Soprano State: New Jersey's Culture of Corruption" and "Chris Christie: The Inside Story Of His Rise To Power". He has won numerous journalism awards and is often a news analyst on radio and television. Twitter @ bobingle99.

As we have 605 school districts the ranges are huge as is the pay even within a district.
The guarenteed raises and the raises given purely because of earning a higher degree (is that supposed to translate to being able to do a better job or actually doing a better job?) as well as the “steps” are enormous. Two teachers teaching the same subject in the same school can easily have a $20K-$30K difference in pay!

The biggest gripes I have with teacher’s pay is
1) They nearly all get a raise every year…..no matter what.
2) They should contribute something to their premier health benefits and don’t.
3) New hires should go into a 401K and not a defined benefit pension.

Contracts need to be negotiated on a county or state level. These local BOE’s are either over their heads or in cahoots with the NJEA. No sane group would ever agree to some of the terms that these jerks sign off.

Although I feel it reasonable to pay a teacher a fair salary and offer good benefits there should not be the sense of entitlement that they have been demonstrating. Anyone whose primarily motivated to become a teacher to make a lot of money is not the caliber of educator I would want teaching in my school system.

I was suprised to hear Jim Gearhart say that. The good here is that the NJEA and the Administration sat down and made the states RTTT application much stronger than it would have been if the state just sent the application in without local teachers union supporting it.

It does not have to be about one side winning or losing or caving in. Both sides made some compromises and hopefully put NJ in a position to be awarded a grant.

Wow hearing a teacher said she is not paid for her experience and her education is a little silly.
Why would I say silly? Because engineers are NOT paid for their education and experience as well. THey do not get a guarantee increase yearly. They are professionals without a union in many cases. Teachers say they are always professionals, but there is always that union. Mind you, I am speaking of public school teachers.

As to paying your education, please those loans are long done and gone. Bringing it up now, is a little ridiculous.

What most public school teachers forget is they are beholding to tax payers and in most cases property owners for their salary. Even retired property owners, are paying for teachers, principals, superintendents and their support staff. Since they are cost, the real question is, what can be done to reduce the cost? WHich means should property taxes go down and sales tax go up. REmember, it was not too long ago the sales tax was increased in New Jersey. So where did all that money go?

Yeah look at the money trail silly people. THat 1% sales tax increase was used up like a New York minute. SO where is the accountability? Hey speaking of which, where is former Justice Poritz on the 8 billion dollar boondoggle known as the Abbott District? Oh right, she is in France now enjoying the Spring time breeze and sun.

What NJN didn’t comment on during that clip was when Christie told the teacher she didn’t have to do it, the crowd applauded. Instead, NJN chose to play up the disputes and ignore the support. can that be considered truthful reporting? NJN is a biased news service and the faster the state unloads this waste of money, the better.

All documents filed by this woman should be rigorously scrutinized for accuracy.

Falsifying official documents incurs felony charges for first-degree tampering with public records, first-degree offering of a false instrument for filing, fourth-degree grand larceny, and first-degree falsifying of official records.

If documents were falsified, all financial emoluments including state pensions, retirement contracts, annuities and lump sums should be considered null and void b/c the person did not negotiate in good faith.

I’m not sure I get what Gearhart’s beef is. I’m finding Christie to be more and more UNLIKE past governors every day. I know his style ruffles feathers, but all in all I think he’s doing a great job under tough circumstances.

As for this individual teacher’s complaint, I learned long ago in the private sector that your education level and experience will help you to get an interview, but in the end it’s the market that determines your salary. The key to job security and a decent salary is to keep yourself desirable to employers. That means keeping up with technology and the trends of whatever industry you are in. Employers care about what you can DO, not where you’ve been.

Also keep in mind…….
Beside the salary– We are talking working (For teachers) aound 165 days (with sick and personal days not counted) while the average public employee is in the 230-240 days of work a year.

Add on the cost of the pension (less what they may pay which is pretty small) and the cost of the health benefits ($10K-$15K a year???) and you have an equivalent person in the private sector having to make $120-$130k !

Well look at it this was as well Tbworried, the teacher takes home her work as well. So that adds quite a few hours a night, which in turns adds days. Of course, that is part of the job is it not?

As it falsifying records inglejunkie2, well who is falsifying the records? The teacher, the board secretary, the financial officer? Kind of funny as to see who may be misrepresenting their wages etc. Also, the teacher did look and state her salary accurately, its what she makes in a year. Forget about the amount of time at work, look at the legislature in NJ. How many days did they work to get their $50K a year?

You have that right Shoregrrl. You can have the doctorate or masters or bachelor’s or even what school did you graduate from. It at least gets you in the door. Once you and your employers agree on the salary its fixed. If it goes up, great, because of your hard work. If it does not increase enough for you, well there is the door. I even hear from the AG’s office they cannot retain those fine attorneys, because private law firms are clamoring for all those fine attorneys. Well let the private practice take them. WHy not? Afterall, you can get quite a few ambitious attorney’s now who would love to prosecute corruption. Let the tenured go, afterall, with the great private sector employment picture in New Jersey I am sure they will find jobs quickly, NOT.

The official day for most teachers is 7 hours. That includes lunch and “prep” time and other breaks during the work week. this can vary quite a bit by school district, school, and course(s) taught.

There are also a good many people in the real world who may work over 8 hours a day, sometimes into the evening whether at the office or at home. They (teachers) do not have a monopoly on ptting in extra hours, they just have a better defined day and one that probbaly averages less than the rest of us.

Let me be clear….this is all fine. These are little perks of the job. My issue is that many of them don’t appreciate that they have it pretty good and play it up as though they have it so rough compared to everyone else and that they are “entitled” to more.

I can’t speak for java but as for me, the thing that rubs is not the money, but the VALUE. The results do not warrant the expense. If high salaries resulted in quality I would say teachers should be one of the highest paid profession in America. Unfortunately there is no correlation between remuneration and results other than, perhaps, a negative one. Good teachers answer a calling, they would and do teach because they love kids and they love teaching. Higher salaries have only resulted in degrading the quality of those hired. Likely, there are just as many great teachers applying for positions as there ever were but the incestuous nature of school districts precludes the majority of those people from being hired. Lower salaries force an applicant pool of those who love to each. The bureaucracies as built over the last 40 years, especially the last 20, have created an environment that attracts people interested in a decent, well paying JOB, not interested in teaching. Since called teachers want to teach they are not good candidates for the type of system that exists sine they would not be happy NOT teaching. Therefore, only those who know someone already in the system are candidates for hiring since they likely have the same qualities and JOB expectations as those that recommend them.

That is the most nonsense I have read in a while, which says something when you have Bob Ingle writing in a blog. The lower the pay scale the fewer amounts of quality teachers will enter into the profession. Many quality people will not consider teaching because they can make $10-30,000 more outside of the school system.
Do some get into the job for the money? Not many, since they can find a job that will make more money quicker than teaching. Do some get into it for job security? Yes. No doubt about that.

Most teachers are hired for their merits. Do “incestuous” hires happen, like all fields of course, but it is rare. Most people who claim they can not get a teaching job are either lying, have a weak resume, refuse to work in some school districts since they are beneath them, or are English or Social studies teachers so the numbers work against them.

For an eye opener go to youtube.com. Type in The Cartel, a documentary of the New Jersey School Systems. The bottomless pit where tax money is being poured into. The High School Diplomas issues on the passing of the High School Proficiency Assessment, which is an 8th grade level test, marked on a curve with a 47% score passing. Students who can not pass this test are given three additional trys to pass. If they still can’t pass, the teachers’ give them a Special Review Assessment (SRA), short of an open book test. The student’s parents are not notified their child can’t make the grade. But, the student receives his/her diploma on a Dummy Down test, and little do the parents know. The NJEA lauds the fact that 90% of students graduate high school and are rated within the top 10 in the country. Take the SRA into consideration and New Jersey is no longer rated in the top ten, it falls down to 24th. Moreover, these student’s who are given diplomas for passing the SRA are for the most part illiterate. Plus the HJEA and the teacher’s pat themselves on the back for what a great job they are doing. Another eye opener is the college graduates that are products of New Jersey’s educational system 42% of these new teachers can’t pass the State’s test to become a teacher. The Education System is too top heavy with administrators, the Regional School Districts and their Boards of Education act autonomously, which are much to many considering there are 21 counties in this State with over 500 +. Nothing will have any major impact on money thrown at this fiefdom until a firm hand is taken and meaningful consolidation is done. Contracts with the NJEA must be broken, these public employees who now must contribute 1.5% for their healthcare is a pittance of the cost to keep them and retirees covered by healthcare. Teacher’s raises have to be based on merit and not on an automatic across the board 4% increases. That breeds the SRA tests, and teachers who play the system. The judicial system has no place in determining education policies, The Board of Education must determine what books, programs etc., must be taught state wide and taken out of the hands of the Regional Boards and keep them as satilites only with no power to hire or fire, but to make suggestions to the BOE. Consolidate the school districts, get rid of the countless superintendents, their assistants, business managers, their assistants, teachers who can’t perform must be let go.. Stop undo overtime, stop the use of free cars 24/7, stop the savings of unused vacation days and sick days. Alot the number of vacation days based on seniority, and position, use them or lose them, and limit the sick days to a number of allowed occasions per year.

The Governor is right, teachers take the job knowing it does not pay great, and if they don’t like it, they can quit. And if they all went to Wall Street to make their millions, maybe we would have better investment firms. Talk about win-win.

She thinks there should be a direct link between her experience and education and her compensation. In most fields its what you do with that experience and compensation, not that merely that you have it.

Here is my teachers compensation model:

Salary + Non Pension Benefits + Vacations + Pension + Tenure

Salary is low but the NPB are as good as it gets for a non-executive. Vacations are the best in America including two months where you can get another job. Teachers are still getting a pension where a lot of private sector employees are not. And Tenure???!!!! Most private sector employees are constantly at risk of getting fired or laid off and must plan finances accordingly. Tenure is worth at least one to two years salary.

Teacher contracts can not be broken, please read the Contract clause. Every state has an SRA process so if you take out NJ’s SRA, then you need to take out what every else state does which still leaves NJ at the top. Teachers do not receive overtime. I could go on, but that is enough now.

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Bob Ingle, Senior Political Columnist for Gannett New Jersey newspapers, on politics in "The Soprano State".

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Bob IngleBob Ingle is Senior Political Columnist for Gannett New Jersey Newspapers and co-author of The New York Times' Best Seller, "The Soprano State: New Jersey's Culture of Corruption." Hear him Fridays at 5 p.m. on www.tommygshow.com radio. twitter.com/bobingle99 E-mail Bob

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